I recently wrote a complaint letter to a food producer and thought that the public health risk was so great that widespread publication was warranted. Posting it here was the best i could do.

Dear makers of 'Picsweet Steamable Vegetables',

I am an avid customer and eater of your edibles. However I recently encountered a problem during my last endeavor with one of your products. Specifically, your “edamame with sea salt” microwavable vegetable steamables. First, allow me to congratulate you on making such a fantastic product. Moving on...

This afternoon I reached into my freezer, grabbed a bag of your world famous steamables, placed it into the microwave and started the timer for 4 minutes and 30 seconds, just as I have done hundreds of times prior. Once the product had completed its microwave magic and been allowed to set for the recommended one minute at rest, I proceeded to extract the bag from the microwave, cut it open, and dump the contents into an appropriately sized container for the necessary salt addition prior to the main event, only to discover a disaster had occurred. The bag was filled, with not delicious edamame beans, but with abhorrent broccoli cuts. Now, they might not have been discussing as far as broccoli goes. But as I’m sure you’ll agree, compared to edamame, broccoli is objectively sub-par. The phycological reaction to this sudden and unexpected surprise has led me to seek treatment from various psychotherapists to assess the extent of long term damage on my mental well-being.

Upon further investigation into the root cause of this tragedy, I discovered that what I thought was a bag of edamame was actually a “properly” labeled bag of broccoli cuts. However, as you can see by the side by side comparison of products and their respective packaging, the labeling and imagery for the two items is strikingly similar. So while it appears that the blame is to be shared between consumer and producer, I feel a 3% to 97% split respectively, is a generous assessment.

nearly identical bags

Being a proactive and responsible consumer I have decided to graciously share with you the ideal solution to this problem. Clearly the packaging similarities pose a devastating health risk to the general public. The contents of your packaging should be easy to discern relative to other Steam'ables products. Therefore, below are my suggested improvements for your broccoli steamables product. Feel free to use this imagery (with proper attribution given of course).